


Discordant Harmonies

by QDS



Category: Cowboy Bebop
Genre: 1 Sentence Fiction, 50 Sentences, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-05
Updated: 2010-09-05
Packaged: 2017-10-11 11:45:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/112084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QDS/pseuds/QDS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jet and Spike, the ways they mesh, and the ways they don't. Written for the <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/1sentence">1sentence</a> challenge on LJ. Theme set: <a href="http://1sentenceorder.livejournal.com/1531.html">beta</a>. Spoilers for the whole series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Discordant Harmonies

#01 - Walking

Despite his bulk, there was an elegance to Jet's stride, a solid confidence that Spike often admired, though he never let Jet know it by words; rather, he touched one side of Jet's hip at the end of the day, and beckoned him with an incline of his head towards one of their bedrooms.

#02 - Waltz

We'll never go dancing, Jet thought, as he watched Spike practice kata, but I bet Spike could pick up a waltz very easily and look damn good at it too.

#03 - Wishes

Jet senses that Spike is like the stars; Jet stopped wishing on them long ago, but like Spike, he can't stop admiring them, even though he knows that one day they will burn out and tumble into the darkness.

#04 - Wonder

Spike knew Jet had a greater need for stability and companionship than he did, though he often wondered how Jet had ever thought that Spike could provide either (especially the former) in great measure.

#05 – Worry

"You're worrying when you don't need, Jet," Spike said, and Jet started both at the truth of it, and the warning behind the words that Spike just might up and leave if Jet continued to do so.

#06 - Whimsy

While Spike knew Jet could be a touch sentimental, he never expected him to indulge in whimsies – except for that one time when Jet left him a small bonsai of his own making in Spike's room without so much as a word, which Spike unfortunately let die because he didn't water it properly.

#07 - Waste/Wasteland

They looked over the red wasteland that was Mars, Spike's expression as blank, unreadable, and tumultuous as the surface, while Jet wished he could find the words to reach beyond that and understand.

#08 - Whiskey and rum

Jet imbibes whiskey while Spike drinks rum; it's the only bar on Deimos, one of the Martian moons, and the liquor, and their thighs pressed discretely against the others, keeps them warm against a chilly wind.

#09 - War

"It's like a damn war zone in here sometimes," Faye muttered, as Spike stormed out of the living area yet again, and Jet folded his arms and snarled, but he couldn't help feeling she was right.

#10 - Weddings

Bounty hunters usually crash weddings rather than attend them invited; still, while Jet waited for Spike's signal to nab one of the best men, he couldn't help looking with some envy at the two grooms who absolutely only had eyes for each other.

#11 - Birthday

Jet and Spike never knew when each other's birthdays were, but one day, on a whim, Ed made a surprisingly edible birthday cake, so they all pretended it was theirs that day, and later that night, Jet gave Spike a drunken birthday kiss, which made Spike chuckle for all its sticky sweetness.

#12 – Blessing

For Jet, it was a blessing when Spike came home alive, and an added bonus when he didn't have to bandage him up.

#13 – Bias

"You miss out if you're so biased to Charlie Parker, Jet – what about Duke Ellington," Spike said, but his efforts to persuade Jet to listen beyond his usual music went unheeded.

#14 – Burning

The tail of the Hammerhead was still smoking when Jet pulled into the docking bay, and when Spike made a joke about Jet's ass being on fire, Jet threatened to give his a solid ramming that wouldn't allow him to stand for a week, an offer Spike acquiesced to by pressing against Jet's body.

#15 - Breathing

The Jeet-Kun Do training had taught Spike how to breathe well (how to keep it steady, measured, how to recover air when it was knocked out in a fight), but he hadn't expected his breath to catch the first time he saw Jet with his shirt off.

#16 – Breaking

It's easier, Jet thought, a few days after Spike had gone, to prevent a ship from breaking than a heart.

#17 – Belief

For Spike, belief in anything had come to a dead stop the day he was meant to meet Julia, so he found it bother flattering and disconcerting that Jet kept trying to project his onto him.

#18 – Balloon

Spike was walking back from delivering the bounty when he turned the corner to see Jet handing Ed a balloon (no doubt bought at the travelling circus they'd just been to) and to Spike's surprise, a wave of tenderness fall over him, and he felt a sudden desire to give Jet an enormous hug.

#19 – Balcony

Spike had fallen almost a story from a balcony in a Ganymede shopping mall, pushed by a surprisingly strong bounty, and Jet had held his hand, cursing the bounty for doing it and quietly praying Spike would soon open his eyes.

#20 – Bane

"I ought to be the bane of your existence," Spike teased, hoping that Jet would see sense, but all he got was a look of grumpy resignation.

#21 – Quiet

Before Ein, Ed, and Faye had arrived, Spike had allowed his moans (while Jet was fucking him like no tomorrow) to reverberate all around the Bebop, whilst Jet's sweet-nothings had been loud and passionate; very different from the furtive sex they managed these days, though Spike was often moved by the intensity of Jet's expression as he tried to keep his words to a low whisper.

#22 – Quirks

Sometimes it was their quirks that drove each other mad; Jet's neat-freak ways too much for Spike to handle, while Spike sleeping all the time irked at Jet, but at others it was the larger, philosophical standpoints that did them in, and left them with their backs turned to each, sometimes seething for days, before one of them would capitulate and ask for a cigarette, when they would then sit in silence, quietly forgiving the other of his foibles, but not forgetting.

#23 – Question

They never asked the questions of each other – do you want to go to bed, do you want fuck – but rather just fell into each other from time to time, relishing what they could for a little while together.

#24 – Quarrel

Their quarrels about the Bebop and work always varied, from Spike's cleanliness, to Jet's cooking, to the best way to catch a bounty, but they always were the same when it came to how they treated each other; Jet wanted Spike to stay closer, and Spike wished Jet would loosen his grip.

#25 – Quitting

"A beach hut on the far side of Ganymede; it's warm, and plenty of good fishing – what do you, think, Spike, quit all of this and head off, just the two of us?"

#26 – Jump

Spike hadn't meant to jump into Jet's arms getting away from the mad driver on the Martian road, that much was obvious, but Jet kicked himself for days for not savouring that brief moment more.

#27 – Jester

"Trust me, Spike, it's Joker, not Jester," Jet said as they took the latest bounty who Spike had thought had cleverly named himself from the old Earth song, and Jet had declared the man to be an ignoramus as well as a thief.

#28 – Jousting

"You'll be my knight in shining armour, Jet, win jousts for my favours," Spike said, all suggestive grins, and Jet muttered to himself he would if Spike let him.

#29 – Jewel

Sometimes, when they had sex in the near dark, sweat from Spike's body would drip onto Jet's cybernetic arm, and Spike thought that it glisten like diamonds in the thin shard of light streaming under the door.

#30 – Just

It wasn't as if Jet had learned to expect life to be fair, or just, but when it came to Spike, Jet had always hoped that it might, just once, work out in his favour.

#31 – Smirk

Even Spike's smirk was charming, and it drove Jet crazy that he could turn it on and all would be forgiven.

#32 – Sorrow

It wasn't sorrow that afflicted Spike; had it been, Jet might have known how to help him, how to comfort and love him better, but the deep emptiness that Spike carried with him was something so unfathomable that Jet could only wish he could get to the bottom of and fill with his love.

#33 – Stupidity

There were two kinds of stupidity, Jet decided: Spike's kind, that meant near brushes with fiery death as he flew the Swordfish far too close to much larger ships, and Jet's kind, that waited and hoped for more from a man who would risk his life because to him it didn't matter.

#34 – Serenade

Spike came upon Jet singing in his bonsai room, and almost interrupted him by knocking, but he was startled to hear deep, rich tones, the feeling of Jet's voice rumbling in his stomach, sending warm tingles through his whole body.

#35 – Sarcasm

"Lowest form of wit, Jet," Spike said, not showing how he was actually squirming inside, for it was one of those rare times when Jet's comments had actually hit its mark.

#36 – Sordid

"Hey fellas, you just get on with what you're doing, but remember I want no part of whatever sordid thing you've got going," Faye said, backing out of Jet's room while Spike glared at her and Jet kicked himself for not fitting a better lock sooner.

#37 – Soliloquy

The Bebop was on virtual auto pilot, and Spike went to speak to Jet in the control room, only to find him with one of Goethe's plays open, Jet mouthing what Spike imagined to be a soliloquy, and Spike watched Jet for a long while, enjoying the way Jet formed the words on his mouth, and the way they must have been going through his mind as he made sense of them.

#38 – Sojourn

A year before Faye or Ed or Ein had found their way onto the Bebop, Jet and Spike had taken what was meant to be a sojourn on one of the hot yet pleasant asteroids in the belt, but the Bebop had decided to break down and left them stranded on the kitschy tourist trap of a rock for a month (thank God, they agreed once off there and were heading towards the chilliest part of Jupiter for a cool down, that at least the Sangria was good.)

#39 – Share

'Sharing' was not a word used often on the Bebop (what belonged to someone was robustly guarded by one and all) but cigarettes and beer passed fairly freely between Jet and Spike, both also being tasty appetizers and afters for good solid screw.

#40 – Solitary

Despite having the bearing of someone who could look after himself, Jet wasn't someone who really liked being alone, but he knew if he didn't give Spike at least some breathing room on the Bebop, he'd lose him even faster than he probably already would.

#41 – Nowhere

"I like the sounds of nowhere," Spike murmured one day in the pilot room, under his breath so Jet couldn't hear.

#42 – Neutral

It was impossible to remain neutral in how you felt about Spike, Jet decided, whose emotions for him either ran cold or hot, or warm or amused, but indifferent...never.

#43 – Nuance

Jet, Spike considered, was pretty straight forward and easy to read, and not the sort to pick up on subtleties all the time, but occasionally, there were parts of him that puzzled Spike, though he always put it to one side and forgot about it.

#44 – Near

You could, Jet realised one evening, spooning next to Spike, skin to sweaty skin, be as close as this to someone and yet very far apart from them.

#45 – Natural

Spike poked his tongue out at Jet and didn't bother answering his question regarding his hair: "You sure that's a natural colour?"

#46 – Horizon

Some days the Mars horizon was a dusky, earthy colour, and others (the spectacular days) it was bright neon – very much like Spike's eye, Jet thought, and about as impenetrable and unreachable.

#47 – Valiant

The explosion that Jet pulled Spike out of had been nasty, so now Jet held Spike while tending his wounds, and Spike reached up and brushed his fingers across Jet's forehead, and murmured, half delirious, that he was terribly valiant.

#48 – Virtuous

Spike looked at the crossword, and snorted: "Well, that's a word we're both not."

#49 – Victory

Jet punched the air, and Spike's grin was languid but pleased, and he gave Jet a cheeky, promising rub on his thigh while Faye dragged the bounty to claim their wulongs.

#50 – Defeat

As Jet limped around the broken Bebop, as he polished beams that really didn't need it, and stared at the darkening Martian landscape, he tried to accept that he had willfully refused to see what Spike really needed, and that trying to fit Spike into the mold of productive, proud human being hadn't and was never going to work – but all the while he still remembered Spike's smile, and laugh, and he wondered if that made it hurt worse, or if it would help him as he began the long process of getting this damn rust bucket of a ship off the ground.


End file.
